Arkansas Hunting

Hey everyone happy holidays. I have a question for you all I am from MD but could be getting an opportunity to move to Fort Smith, AR. I have a rifle I built for long range hunting but never really been to an area that permitted it. Currently in MS with a long range shot of 65 yards but anyone know if the Fort Smith area is conducive to long range hunting. Thanks Rich

Only if you get on agricultural land. I was raised about an hour north of there, which is even less conducive to long shots. FS is still somewhat hilly, and heavily treed. If you go across the river into Oklahoma, it's less dense, so you might have a better chance over there. But as long as you're hunting the Ozarks or Ouachitas, you'll be more likely to get that 65 yard shot than a 650 yard shot. There is the off chance that you'll get a shot across a valley, which could be a few hundred yards, but clearings are somewhat scarce, and the odds of getting a shooter deer to wander out into a clearing while you're set up on the opposite slope are pretty slim. Here's a little bit of how it looks. This was while flying from Little Rock to Springdale, so just a little NE of FS.

So you can see there are some clearings, but nothing like the western plains.

Nomadpilot pretty well hit it for the area around FT Smith. The western half of AR is pretty hilly and mostly timber. Good news is there is a lot of public land within an hour or so, National Forrest, and game management areas. Lots of black bears if that interests you as well. The area is not really known for big deer, but they certainly kill a few up there. You might check into Gulf Mountain WMA. I used to hunt up there 20 years ago.

As Nomad said, for long range type hunting you might be better off looking for a place to hunt in OK. I live about 3 hours south east of there and have some long range shooting on my place, but only because I made it that way. Eastern AR is farm country, the White and Mississippi river delta. That is the area known for big deer. I am not familiar with the delta as I have my own place to hunt but it might be worth checking into if you are willing to drive a few hours.

Rbecker08, I am from north Louisiana and we ride Atv's south of Mena, AR. The terrain is exceptionally steep , while riding the area in Nov. we saw many oppertunities to sit spot and shoot , though we didn't see any trophy class animals we would see several deer slipping along ridges at ranges approuching 700 yrds. this was on national forrest land and the leaves had all fallen.

My buddy and I hunt the National Forrest area up there from time to time. Long Range spots are very hard to come buy. I hunted a power line opening weekend and shot a decent buck from about 500yards. The best time to hunt LR up that way (unless you are fortunate enough to hunt a farm) is during the Christmas Hunt when all the leaves are off the trees. You can find several spots to glass from mountain to mountain.